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Portugal only had one goal in Split, to play for their self-esteem. Show that the defeat against France had been, as Fernando Santos called it, a “traffic accident” and give the national coach a good night’s sleep. The Portuguese team ended up regaining some of their self-esteem, with a 2-3 victory against Croatia, closing their participation in the Nations League, but, it must be said, they had almost everything going for them, including numerical superiority for 40 minutes, Illegal goal and goalkeeper offer.
It ended up being Rúben Dias to unbalance the match for Portugal, scoring the second of his two goals in the match in stoppage time to defeat the world runner-up, for whom the match still had competitive interest, to remain in League A – Sweden ended up falling , defeated by France 4-2. But it was not exactly the “high level” response that Fernando Santos intended.
There were several changes across all sectors, including the introduction of Diogo Jota into Portugal’s attacking trio (instead of Bernardo Silva), but there were no visible gains, either in offensive dynamics or shooting ability. And even Cristiano Ronaldo seemed engulfed by Portuguese passivity towards Croatia, far from being a suffocating defense. Even so, it created danger when the ball approached Rui Patrício’s goal.
The Portuguese threat came from the wings. At 14 ‘, Diogo Jota headed deflected after a cross from Bruno Fernandes, and at 19’ it was Mário Rui who put the ball on Ronaldo’s head, which escaped him. But it was not an organic domain of the game and, for long periods, the team seemed attacked by a tremendous passivity, as if disinterested in what the game could give them.
Croatia took advantage of this to gain an advantage close to half an hour. At 29 ‘, Rúben Semedo committed a great foolishness handling the ball in the area and passed it to Pasalic. The Atalanta midfielder saw Kovacic’s entry well, making it 1-0 for the hosts. Shortly after, at 37 ‘, the Croats almost scored 2-0, but Juranovic’s header, at the far post, went wide.
For the second half, Fernando Santos launched Trincão in place of Bruno Fernandes, and soon after, Portugal’s fortunes began to change. Rog’s ugly foul on Cristiano Ronaldo earned the Cagliari midfielder the second yellow card and the consequent expulsion. CR7 advanced for the free kick, guard Livakovic defended on the side, where Rúben Semedo was, who passed the ball to Rúben Dias to score 1-1, in the 52nd minute.
With almost half a game ahead in numerical superiority, Portugal had everything to complete the change of course, which happened shortly after, at 60 ‘. Ball on the flank for Diogo Jota, who dominated it with his arm and gave João Félix an assist to score 1-2; There would have been VAR in these Nations League group stage matches and the goal would have been disallowed.
With the game in hand, the Portuguese team became selflessly interested again and Croatia took the opportunity to draw the tie, on 65 ‘. Another bad approach by Rúben Semedo to a play in the Portuguese area left Kovacic with room to make it 2-2. That salvation would go back to Rúben Dias who, at the moment of clearance, made it 2-3 after an error by Livakovic, who could not retain a ball that had gone through the air.
The City center-back took advantage and gave the Portuguese some dignity by saying goodbye to a competition he had won last year. A victory that disguised the problems, but did not erase them.
